Play it now, and then play it again, and when you’ve solved the mystery of Madame Shu, give me a hint so that I may finally solve it myself. Don’t let it sit in your library for years. I can recommend it without caveats if you like stories and adventures and good, strong writing, there is something for you in 80 Days.ĭon’t hesitate. It truly is that good, that fun, that interesting. I wish I’d lived it so hard that I will play it again and again and again until I’ve milked everything from it. Not so with 80 Days, which is so glorious an adventure I wish I’d lived it. Even some of my favorite games- Dragon Age: Origins, Life is Strange-come with qualifiers about this quest or that story beat. It’s rare to come away from a game as text-heavy and story-driven as this one with few complaints. Other than that, the game plays seamlessly. It follows the English nobleman Phineas Fogg and his sidekick Sidney (a monkey) who bets that he is able to travel around the world in 80 days.

The port is well-done, though there were a scattered few places where the text box wasn’t quite right and I had to do some strange scrolling to read everything. Around the World in 80 Days is a childrens game based on the novel of the same name. I’ve had 80 Days sitting in my Steam library for ages, but it took the Switch port to get my to play it because of the sheer deluge of other games out there. But there are few, in my opinion, that feel as grand and purposeful as this one. There are plenty of wonderful narrative games out there with fascinating and unique stories to them. The care put into these stories isn’t secondary to cool mechanics or visuals it is the thing you come for. Transforming Around the World in Eighty Days into an interactive story Meg Jayanth is the writer of 80 Days a steampunk interactive narrative adventure. Each one is equally strong, with twists and turns and delightful new characters to encounter. Can you do it Travel back in time to the late 19th century and embark on a spectacular adventure across four continents with the English daredevil, Phileas Fogg, and his loyal French servant, Passepourtout. The difference between 80 Days and many other narrative games for me is that each path feels like the intended one. Sure, I won the bet, but that playthrough was far less interesting than the ones where I intentionally tried to visit every continent, or where I chased side stories and veered away from the direct route around the globe to London. In fact, rushing through the world to make it back in time left me unsatisfied.

Yes, the game involves a fair amount of player control, but I never felt as if the choices I made were supplemental to the main mission of returning to London. When I say that it’s like a novel you play, I mean that the worldbuilding, the paths you follow, the choices you make, the stories you find, are all so wonderfully crafted that each decision feels less like straying from the intended path in search of worldbuilding and more like letting the fiction take you new, exciting places. Of course, 80 Days is more than that it’s not a mere adaptation of Verne’s work, nor is it just interactive text.

Around the world in 80 days video game